Railway tank car



lTune 17, 1969 Filed May 20, 1966 J. T. KASPRZYCKI ET AL RAILWAY TANK CAR INVENTORS.

JOSEPH T. KASPRZYCKI ROY d. HOLDEN Ewig/MU?- ATTORNEY June 17, 1969 1 T KASPRZYCKI ET Al. 3,450,066 l RAILWAY TANK CAR Filed May 20, 1966 sheet f3 of 3 FIG. 6.

June 17, 1959 1 T KASPRZYCK] ET AL 3,450,066

RAILWAY TANK CAR Filef. my 20, 196e sheet 5 of 5 United States Patent O 3,450,066 RAILWAY TANK CAR Joseph T. Kasprzycki and Roy J. Holden, St. Charles, Mo., assignors to ACF Industries, Incorporated, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed May 20, 1966, Ser. No. 551,660 Int. Cl. B61d 5/00, 17/00 U.S. Cl. 10S-362 1 Claim ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Heretofore, tanks or tank structures have been fixed to the center sill of the underframe by riveting. In order to remove the shell or tank structure from the underframe structure it has been necessary to remove the rivets.

The present invention is particularly directed to a railway tank car in which the tank or shell structure is removably secured to the underframe structure and may be readily and easily disconnected from the underframe structure in a minimum of time. For example, it is highly desirable to have a disconnectable shell structure when railway tank cars are ferried or shipped over water or the like. With the present invention, it is only necessary to remove the shell structure from the underframe stnucture and to ferry the shell structure alone. It is sometimes desirable to remove the shell structure from the underframe structure when the railway tank cars are used for prolonged periods of time in facilities with limited track space. In such instances, the underframe stnucture may be removed to a different llocation while the shell structure may be positioned adjacent the track.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a railway tank car in which the shell or tank structure is removably secured to the underframe structure.

It is a further object of this invention to provide such a railway tank car in which force transfer means are provided to transmit generally horizontal forces between the tank structure and underframe structure.

The invention accordingly comprises the constructions hereinafter described, the scope of the invention being indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which |one of various possible embodiments of the invention is illustrated,

FIGURE l is a side elevation of a railway tank car comprising the present invention and illustrating a tank structure removably connected to an underframe stnucture;

FIGURE 2 is a partial end elevation of the railway tank car of FIGURE 1 removed from the truck assemblies;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragment of FIGURE 2 showing the hold-down means for releasably securing the tank structure to the underframe structure;

FIGURE 4 is a section taken generally along Eline 4 4 of FIGURE 3 and showing means to transmit forces between the tank structure and the underframe structure;

FIGURE 5 is a section taken generally along line 5-5 of FIGURE 3 and showing the hold-down means for releasably secured the shell structure to the underframe structure;

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged perspective, partly in section, showing the intertting portions of the force transmitting means between the shell structure and the underframe structure after the shell structure has been separated from the underframe structure; and

FIGURE 7 is a side elevation illustrating the tank structure removed from the underframe structure.

Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings and more particularly to FIGURE 1, a railway tank car is generally indicated 10 and includes an underframe structure 12 and a removable shell or tank structure generally indicated 14. Underframe structure 12 comprises a 'hat-shaped center sill 16 extending the length of railway car 10 and an underframe bolster structure 18 adjacent eac'h end of center sill 16. Forming each underframe bolster structure 18 is a pair of spaced vertical webs 20 secured between a bolster to'p cover plate 22 and a bolster lower cover plate 24. A stub side sill 26 extends between webs 20 along each side of each bolster 18. A center plate 28 on each lower bolster cover plate 24 is supported on a subjacent truck assembly generally indicated 30.

Removable tank structure 14 includes a generally cylindrical tank shell 32 having a tank bolster structure 33 adjacent each end thereof in vertical alignment with subjacent underframe bolster structures 18. Each tank bolster structure 33 comprises a saddle plate 34 secured by welding to tank shell 32, a lower horizontal cover plate 36 adapted to fit in face-to-face relation with the underframe bolster top cover plate 22, and a pair of tank bolster web plates 38 secured between saddle plate 34 and lower tank bolster cover plate 36. A tank side plate 40 of tank bolster structure 33 is secured on each side of each saddle plate 34 between lower cover plate 36 and the adjacent saddle plate 34.

To releasibly secure tank structure 14 to underframe structure 12 and referring particularly to FIGURES 3 and 5, a channel-shaped extension 42 is secured to tank bolster lower cover plate 36 outwardly of each side plate 40. An outwardly opening slot 44 in the upper web of each channel-shaped extension 42 is adapted to receive an eye or swing bolt indicated at 46. Mounting eye bolt 46 for swinging or pivotal movement between underframe bolster webs 20 is a threaded pin 48. Vertical stiifeners 49 extend alongside eye bolt 46 and are secured to extension 42, webs 20 and adjacent cover plates 22, 36. The upper end of swing bolt 46 is threaded and a turn wheel 50 is threaded thereon to draw extension 42 tight against bolster top cover plate 22 when 'handwheel 50 is tightened.

To position tank stnucture 14 accurately with respect to underframe structure 12 and to permit tank structure 14 to be easily lifted from underframe structure 12 when swing bolts 46 are disengaged, a support pad 52 having a conical projection 54 is riveted by rivets 56 to bolster top cover plate 22 as shown in FIGURE 6. A plurality of slits 58 along the surface of each projection 54 extend in a straight-line direction to intersect the vertex formed by the conical projection. Welded between tank webs 38 at a cutout portion 59 in .lower cover plate 36 is a mounting block generally designated 60 and having a conical shaped opening 62 therein adapted to t over projection 54 as shown particularly in FIGURE 4. Slits 58 permit tank structure 14 to be `lifted from support pads 52 with a minimum of binding. Shear forces are transmitted from tank structure 14 to support pads 52, and thence to underframe structure 12. In the event of unusually high shear forces such as might result from a collision, rivets 56 are designed to shear at such a predetermined high stress to permit separation of underframe structure 12 from shell structure 14.

To remove shell structure 14 from runderfrarne stnucture 12, the four handwheels 50 are untightened manually and swing bolts 46 removed from slots 44. Then, shell structure 14 may be lifted from underframe structure 12.

From the foregoing, a railway tank car 10 has been provided in which a detachable vor removable shell structure 14 may be removed from underframe structure 12 in a minimum of time and with a minimum of binding.

In View of the foregoing, it will be seen that the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results obtained.

As various changes could be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

1. In a railway car, an underframe structure comprising a center sill extending generally the length of the tank car and an underframe bolster structure adjacent each end of the center Sill, each underframe bolster structure having a top cover plate, a tank structure lhaving a saddle plate and associated tank bolster structure adjacent each end thereof, said tank bolster structures being vertically aligned with the underframe bolster structures and being supported on the top covei plates of the underframe bolster structures, a tank mounting pad riveted to the top cover plate of each underframe bolster structure on each side of the tank car, a conically-s-haped projection extending upwardly from each tank mounting pad, said tank bolster structures having generally conically-shaped pockets f1tting on and receiving said conically-shaped projections to transmit generally horizontal forces between the tank structure and said underframe structure through said projections, said conically-shaped projections having slits therein to minimize binding between the tank structure and the underframe structure upon removal Kof the tank structure, and releasable hold-down means between the underframe structure and the tank structure to releasably secure the tank structure to the underframe structure.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,167,028 1/1965 Gutridge et al. l05-366 3,251,314 5/1966 Gutridge 10S-366 2,226,713 12/ 1940 Folmsbee l05-362 2,567,015 9/1951 Folmsbee 105-362 2,927,756 3/1960 Compton 10S-362 ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner.

R. A. BERTSCH, Assistant Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 105-366 

